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Retail Health Care Clinics

Operating out of pharmacies, grocery stores, and "big box" stores, retail health clinics provide care for simple acute conditions, typically delivered by a nurse practitioner. RAND research examines all angles of this relatively new mode of care delivery, including the effect of retail clinics on preventive services, doctor-patient relationships, and costs.

There has been hope that retail clinics would help lower health care costs by diverting care from costly emergency departments to more convenient and lower-cost retail clinics, but new findings do not support that idea.

Retail clinics, seen as a convenient and cost-saving alternative to physician offices and hospital emergency departments, may actually drive up medical spending by creating demand for new medical services. They have become an attractive alternative to staying home and suffering through a minor illness.

Retail clinics, seen as a convenient and cost-saving alternative to physician offices and hospital emergency departments, may actually drive up medical spending by creating demand for new medical services. They have become an attractive alternative to staying home and suffering through a minor illness.

CVS has officially stopped selling cigarettes and other tobacco products, a move that will cost the pharmacy chain about $2 billion in annual profits. It's difficult to say if this will affect smoking. For now, the ban is most significant for what it represents symbolically.

CVS Caremark will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at its CVS/pharmacy stores beginning Oct. 1. Though it stands to lose $2 billion dollars in annual revenue, CVS CEO Larry J. Merlo said that selling tobacco products is at odds with the company's mission of improving health outcomes.

Convenient options for treating minor health problems are an important new feature of the health care landscape. Ateev Mehrotra discusses these options and their implications for the medical marketplace.

People who visit retail medical clinics are less likely to return to a primary care physician for future illnesses and have less continuity of care. However, no evidence suggests that retail medical clinics disrupt preventive care or management of diabetes, two important measures of quality of primary care.

Retail health care clinics provide treatment for acute conditions like bronchitis as well as vaccinations and other preventive care. With the role of retail clinics expanding and U.S. health care entering a dynamic period of change, it is important to consider what we know about this emerging health care setting.

Visits to retail medical clinics increased four-fold from 2007 to 2009, with the proportion of patients over age 65 growing from 8 to 19 percent of all visits during this period. More than 44 percent of visits occurred on the weekend or other hours when physician offices typically are closed.

Visits to retail medical clinics increased four-fold from 2007 to 2009, with the proportion of patients over age 65 growing from 8 to 19 percent of all visits during this period. More than 44 percent of visits occurred on the weekend or other hours when physician offices typically are closed.

Retail clinics—which provide health care within supermarkets, pharmacies, and stores—are a promising and popular venue for the promotion and administration of vaccinations. However, they could become more viable by reviewing patient histories and providing counsel about vaccination benefits.

Researchers determine that retail clinics may disrupt whether patients see a primary care physician first for new conditions, as well as continuity of care. However, retail clinics do not negatively impact preventive care or diabetes management.

Use of retail medical clinics located in pharmacies and other retail settings increased tenfold between 2007 and 2009. The determining factors in choosing one over a physician's office were found to be age, health status, income, and proximity to the clinic.

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Adjunct Policy Analyst

Ateev Mehrotra is an adjunct policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and an associate professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the measurement of health care quality and efficiency, applications of quality measures such as…

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